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Bonsai Lab: 3D Printing for Kids

Gizmag took a look atBonsai Lab’s booth at the 2015 Nuremberg Toy Fair, and they discovered the company’s latest 3D printer, the BS Toy.This printer is aimed at families and children.Although it is recommended that children who use this 3D printer do so with adult supervision.

Bonsai doesn’t want the printer to be known exclusively as a child’s 3D printer, however, so officially they call it a “3D printer for educational or home use.”

“The BS Toy is a smaller, safer follow-up to Bonsai Lab’s BS01+ printer.Bonsai had the BS01+ busy printing in Nuremberg, but the Bonsai Toy was still just a non-working model.The company hopes to have it ready later this year.”

The BS Toy “is a pint-sized, 8-in (20-cm) cube that weighs just 4.4 lb (2kg).The key to making it friendly for ‘home or educational use’ is in a specially designed filament from Polymaker.The BS Toy’s filament melts at 176 degrees F (80 degrees C), which Bonsai Lab says is less than half the average melting temperature of filaments from other 3D printers.It’s still not exactly…cool, but it does lessen the likelihood of serious burns.”

Bonsai previously launched the small, home friendly BS01+ in Japan and they sell it for $770.They plan a worldwide launch soon, along with the 2015 holiday season launch of the BS Toy.They estimate the price of the smaller printer being around $500 to $600.“Both the BS Toy and BS01+ are designed to work with Windows 7+ and Mac OS X, with Repetier-Host, Cura, and Simplify3D as recommended software options.”